CuriousCat Archive Page 94 of 202

  2. I've really enjoyed a lot of your videos and writing about games, who are some writers and publications you'd recommend to get more thoughtful games insight while waiting for more stuff from you? Specifically trying to move away from the boringly pervasive "mechanics are the only thing worth analysing" and "the plot is a puzzle to be solved" mindsets that seem so common in internet games discussion (and media in general tbh).

    in response to Why did you stop posting stuff on Tumblr?

    A safe bet is just to go to Critical Distance, which compiles thoughtful writing about games. Unwinnable and Waypoint (aka Vice Gaming but I'll never call them that) both put out good stuff on the regular.

    For game narrative stuff, you can't go wrong with the adventure game/interactive fiction folks, in which case check out the blogs/essays/books by Aaron A. Reed, Emily Short, Clara Fernandez-Vara, and Andrew Plotkin. On YouTube you should already be watching Errant Signal. I find Tom Bissell's writing on games at Grantland and in his book Extra Lives compelling, even if his fixation with AAA and the tensions between narrative and mechanic seem weird to me as someone who plays adventures and indie games where narrative and mechanics pair well quite often. You can also dig through Brendan Keogh's blog.

    Those should get you started! This is, sadly, a pretty white lot, so I'd highly recommend prioritizing Waypoint because they make the effort to get diverse writers.

  4. Without googling a picture: what color is Ganondorf

    usually kind of a dark green, right?

  5. Why does tired brain feel different emotions from awake brain?

    tired brain is closer to the land of sleep, where all the world's sorrows are stored

  6. Why did you stop posting stuff on Tumblr?

    Most of what I post to Tumblr is transcripts of video essays - which I haven't been doing for CO-VIDs because the idea was to work fast and loose and not worry about as many things - and write-ups on adventure games - of which I haven't played much I wanna write about since Outer Wilds. So I haven't stopped so much as I'm in a lull. I feel like I should write up Walking Dead: The Final Season, but I don't have much to say other than "this good."

  7. Do you think white supremacy harms white people analogous to the ways patriarchy and toxic masculinity harm men? If so is the way to deradicalize by pointing out how it harms them instead of trying to teach them empathy?

    That's kind of hard to do when the primary way it harms them is killing their ability to empathize with people of color who share many of the same plights of class, gender, orientation, etc. and would make powerful allies if they were trying to change things for the better.

  8. how to accept/fight against that I look like a lot of other nerdy white dudes

    you can be Nerdy White Dude or Hipster White Dude, those are your options

    I don't make the rules

  9. Best docudrama thriller you've seen? Is it United 93 by Paul Greengrass?

    Apollo 13 is pretty good

  10. are *we* based or cringe

    in response to Are you based or cringe

    everybody's cringe, mate. based is a myth invented to sell soda.

  11. Are you based or cringe

    buddy I'm cringe af

  12. I got a crush and they might be crushing back, how to keep cool

    you're lucky this is happening during a pandemic, wear your mask so they can't see you blush

  13. So even if it's a privilege, it's still not something people should shame others for?

    in response to Is it true that a person has privilege by being able to move in with their parents because they need to save money? I know people who moved back with their parents to get back on their feet or to save up to start a business/go to uni.

    I will allow for the likelihood that there are some people who get shamed for utilizing their safety nets, and that sucks. But, overwhelmingly, I see people with safety nets taking offense any time their safety net is even acknowledged, and claiming they are being "shamed." Meanwhile rather a lot of people with safety nets are shaming other folks for not having them. So I don't really consider "privileged people getting shamed" a serious epidemic, if I'm being honest.

  14. What happens to the discourse if Lynch starts growing and selling tomatoes?

    in response to ... anything else?

    that's just the kinda shit Lynch would pull

  15. Is it true that a person has privilege by being able to move in with their parents because they need to save money?

    I know people who moved back with their parents to get back on their feet or to save up to start a business/go to uni.

    yes. depending on one's relationship with their parents, it may be an extremely loaded privilege, possibly one with as many drawbacks as benefits, but it is a resource others don't have. that's privilege.

  16. Isn't it weird though that TB never apologized to ZQ?

    He was always pretty anti 4-chan, and they hated him right back
    Removed someone for asking a transphobic meme question at a QnA panel
    He was anti Trump and the maga crowd in general
    Was friends with Sterling and LKD, who are pretty anti GG crowd obviously
    Spent the last part of his life trying to apologize to people he felt he was a dick to
    He barely talked about GG in the past while, but when people were attacking trans people a couple years back, he used a lot of tactics that AS used, like disabling the comment section, and had others do those tactics too if they were being filled by chuds

    With all that being said, do you think it was just a pride thing then, that he never apologized to ZQ?
    Do you think that if he was still alive he would have, and it's just the fact he's not around that it was never done?

    Of course maybe it's out there somewhere, idk, It just genuinely depresses me, like an unreasonable amount

    I don't really give a fuck what his intentions were, and I don't think he ever apologized to Anita for telling his hundreds of thousands of followers that death threats against her should be ignored unless someone successfully murders her. Harm done is harm done regardless of what's in his heart.

  17. what should we do about liberals/conservatives who are grifting on leftist youtube?

    I never know which ones are grifters and which ones are just genuine assholes with horrible beliefs

    either way, don't watch them?

  19. How was The Gone World?

    Only started it a few days ago, not done yet. Sweterlitsch's gory descriptions aren't really that lurid or intense, so far as such things go, and it's not like they feel totally gratuitous. But I can never shake the feeling, when reading books like these, that the person writing details about how the ax-wound in the 6-year-old's back looked thinks he's being Very Grown Up. I'm not offended or disturbed by it, but I still wonder at the fact that someone thought of that and had the desire to write it down, you know?

    Anyway, that's a lot of words about something I find perplexing in a book I otherwise find pretty interesting!

  21. Doesn't your ship of theseus video accurately describe a large amount of leftist rhetoric? I guess it's more of a motte-and-bailey, but I've always perceived defund the police, abolish prisons, ACAB, all white people are racist etc. etc. in this way. It's always a more provocative catchphrase than the actual idea intended and then a explanation as to how the terms "racist," "abolish," etc are being defined in a different way in this scenario than they generally are colloquially. This may seem like a concern troll but I am genuinely interested in what you think is different about these phrases.

    don't say "colloquially" when you mean "the way white people use them." when I say abolish, I mean abolish. when I say "you can't be racist against white people," I mean that you can't be racist against white people.

  25. is it possible to desexualize the booby

    yeah, please don't sexualize people while they're nursing

  26. Does Asshole Cow Jerry see the stuff you say about them on here?

    asshole cow jerry has hooves, not fingers, but maybe one of his asshole friends holds a laptop in front of him?

  27. List of things that one can agree to disagree on:

    tomatoes

  28. What if a female writer puts like a LOT of gore in the opening pages of her book?

    dunno, haven't come across that much

  30. when did white people stop being referred to by their particular nationality in the USA

    I live in Boston and being Irish is definitely A Thing here

  31. Not OP, what about a medium you're familiar with?

    in response to Text, fiction, probably on my own blog

    watermarks for photography, illustration, or animation. youtube's copyright notices for video.

  32. Does the lack of low-concept games have something to do with the fact that low-concept games with any buzz seem particularly good at drawing the ire of the Angry Gamer crowd? (thinking of things like Gone Home or Depression Quest, games that seem to fit your definition of low-concept here)

    in response to What's a genre found in art that video games haven't tackled as effectively as you'd like/other mediums have

    they don't hate that stuff cuz it's low-concept, they hate it because they hate women

    I suspect it's because gaming is still treated largely as a pulp medium, and most of the foundations were laid by pulp

  33. Text, fiction, probably on my own blog

    in response to I am considering posting creative conent online in a public forum, for fun, with no existing platform; how to I protect my work from being stolen by opportunists & grifters, especially if it doesn't really take off?

    are you worried about someone taking your story and publishing it as their own? it's fairly easy to prove you wrote the story first since it's dated on your website. I don't know what the pre-emptive measures would be for text, I'm afraid, but I think the odds of someone stealing a story off a blog and expecting it to sell enough to take the risk are pretty low.

  34. I am considering posting creative conent online in a public forum, for fun, with no existing platform; how to I protect my work from being stolen by opportunists & grifters, especially if it doesn't really take off?

    what medium are you working in?

  35. I can't like your reply on this computer, but nice, +1, almost made me break my work poker face.

    in response to Ship of Thesehorse

  36. What if your partner(s) were pancake(s) ?

    what do you mean "what if"

  37. How dare you out-play my word

    in response to Ship of Thesehorse

    get on my level scrub

  38. idk, what about dating sims? Would those qualify as low-concept?

    in response to What's a genre found in art that video games haven't tackled as effectively as you'd like/other mediums have

    I mean, we're talking about narrative genre, not engine. Dating sims have a lot more freedom to be low-concept, with many games that are just about high school crushes and such. Obviously things like Hatoful Boyfriend or the various fantasy sims are higher-concept.

  40. I've never heard of putting potatoes on a pizza before. Like, do you make them into fries first, or fry them before you put them on?

    in response to What are your Ideal Pizza Toppings

  41. Do you really hate the "no person who works a full time job should live in poverty" discourse bcos it should simply be that nobody deserves to live in poverty? Do we need to let go of this idea that we work in exchange for worth? Are People innately + deserving of the basics?

    yeah, I do and we should.

  42. Any tips on understanding low concept versus high concept?

    in response to What's a genre found in art that video games haven't tackled as effectively as you'd like/other mediums have

    basically the greater something deviates from day-to-day reality, the higher the concept.

    takes place on a train: low-concept
    train is spring-powered Jules Verne contraption: a bit higher
    train is driven by gnomes: quite high
    gnomes drive train into space: very high-concept

  44. Do you have any tips for producing content steadily? I think I'm getting better at it but I would love some pointers.

    if by "steadily" you mean "every month," you're sadly barking up the wrong tree

    if by "steadily" you mean "for many years," I guess just make what you wanna make, at a pace that works for you, and treat it as a hobby or side-hustle until it can make you a living. take breaks as often as you need, you're no good to anyone burnt out. keep expanding your interests, try not to stagnate, don't be afraid to do weird shit. no matter how you approach it, no matter how much you love it, it's gonna be work; it's gonna be a job. but it can be a fun job, or a satisfying job, and occasionally it can be both at once.

  45. What are your Ideal Pizza Toppings

    my go-to combo is sundried tomato and fresh basil, but sometimes I'm feeling some spinach and roasted garlic or some potato or some pineapple

  47. Aren't like, half of all adventure games screwball comedy? And most of Failbetter's output is at least gothic romance-adjacent.

    in response to What's a genre found in art that video games haven't tackled as effectively as you'd like/other mediums have

    you're missing the point. adventure games are often screwball comedies, sure, but they're screwball comedies grafted onto pulp genre fare. Monkey Island is a comedy set in a swashbuckling adventure; Sam & Max is a comedy set in a Chuck Jones cartoon world; Grim Fandango is a comedy set in a noir set in a fantasy afterlife; Full Throttle is a comedy set in a outlaw thriller set in a sci-fi dystopia. Failbetter's games are gothic-romances WITH SPACE TRAINS.

    you don't have many video games that are JUST screwball comedies, that are JUST gothic romances. there's no video game It Happened One Night. there's no video game Wuthering Heights. you're not gonna get a video game Pride & Prejudice, though you might get a video game Pride & Prejudice & Zombies.

    and none of this genre blending is bad! I love most of the games I've listed. I just want games to have room for stuff that doesn't HAVE to have a high-concept hook.

  49. Do you think there might be a link between your resistance to Zizek's argument and your distaste for the Coen Bros, whose filmography could be described as 'noir is a thing that can happen to other genres'?

    in response to Would I be? In any case I'm interested in where you come down on the question, not like Robert Aldrich and Paul Schrader.

    what? no. the Coens noirs are extremely, explicitly, self-consciously noir. Miller's Crossing is one long Dashiell Hammett riff, The Man Who Wasn't There is a faux-naif pastiche heavily indebted to films like Double Indemnity, and No Country for Old Men is part of the modern wave of Southern neo-noir, evidenced by being adapted from a Cormac McCarthy novel in the same genre.

    genre blending has nothing to do with what is or isn't a genre. In Bruges is a Tarantino-esque crime movie, a European travelogue, a farce, and a romantic comedy all at once, but that doesn't mean any of those aren't genres in their own right.

    my distaste for the Coens is that they are just so fucking pleased with themselves.

  51. Does video games make people violent?

    video games can affect how we think about violence, for good or for ill

  52. Would I be? In any case I'm interested in where you come down on the question, not like Robert Aldrich and Paul Schrader.

    in response to How far do you think you can stray and still be 'noir'? What elements are necessary for it to be 'noir'?

    Žižek argued that noir isn't so much a genre as a thing that can happen to other genres. The gangster film, the mystery, and the melodrama could all be noirified, which implies it's more of an approach than it is a proper genre. For a long time I disagreed, because I watched a crapton of noir and couldn't find a single one that didn't involve a murder. So I felt confident that the noir was a very particular subgenre of crime film.

    Then I saw Sweet Smell of Success and now I'm faltering a bit.

  53. Seems like you'd want to give somebody else a shot at this point.

    in response to What if someone other than you writes it?

    this is my burden to bear

  54. You're an anticapitalist who consistently glosses over what you'd replace capitalism with. Makes it easy to assume that you'd at least be willing to get rid of capitalism *without* replacing it.

    in response to Including abolishing the forex trade? If so, this would ruin the entire monetary system and certain resources, like gold or oil won't be acquired and to be accessible for everyone

    no it doesn't, and stop pretending it does. you can't convince me you aren't smarter than that.

  55. How much of that do you think comes down to the need to have something recognizably 'game'-like as a mechanic versus just the paths development and marketing have trod?

    in response to What's a genre found in art that video games haven't tackled as effectively as you'd like/other mediums have

    I grew up on adventure games, so the idea that conversations and interpersonal drama are less inherently game-like than guns and superpowers is always going to ring false.

  56. If cow not food, why cow taste good?

    in response to cow is friend, not food?

    you taste good

  57. Cow friend of Cow?

    in response to cow is friend, not food?

    all cows friends except jerry, that cow an asshole

  59. What's a genre found in art that video games haven't tackled as effectively as you'd like/other mediums have

    honestly, I wish games would work in more low-concept genres. most games are some variation of sci-fi/fantasy/action, where stuff with a more grounded focus still has either a very arty (Virginia) or abstract (Passage) way. we don't have the video game equivalent of, like... gothic romance, or screwball comedy, or melodrama, unless its grafted into something pulpy or experimental.

  60. Favorite button on a Controller

    that big ass A on the GameCube

  62. If all jobs are paid the same, you'd be a... ?

    I'd still be Ian

  64. objection: all horses are good horses

    in response to Any opinions on what makes for a good horse?

    counterpoint: not all things are horses.

    how little horse can horse be until not horse? discuss.

  66. If you write a story portraying a cannibal in a sympathetic light, is that endorsing cannibalism?

    it's not NOT endorsing cannibalism

  68. Have you ever had someone refer to you as either Mr. innuendo or Mr. Studios?

    that's Doctor Studios to you

  69. In your Ion Fury video, you call the SMGs Uzis even though they're clearly closer to a Vector. I don't have any follow up point to this but I just need to let the world know since I'm a raging pedant.

    I believe they were lugers actually.

  70. cow is friend, not food?

    in response to Can Cow be Friend?

    absolutely

  71. What is the best noir detective film and why is it Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

    in response to Have you seen Nocturnal Animals from Tom Ford? It's under neo-noir, I believe

    Out of the Past is the best classic noir detective film, Night Moves is the best neo-noir detective film.

    It's actually interesting how the hardboiled detective is the icon of film noir, since the large majority of classic noirs were not detective stories but domestic melodramas or bleak gangster flicks.

  74. Can Cow be Friend?

    all cow is friend

  75. now that snyder fanboys are back at my throat, any thoughts on how their particular piece of fandom does or doesn't radicalize? is this a case of a really efficiently executed radicalization, or is snyder's stuff predisposed to in some way? Or am I making too broad a statement about the few assholes who won't stop bothering me?

    Snyder's stuff is *very* Randian. Yeah, his audience is gonna have more ding-dongs in it.

Anon commented:
Ian replied: